by Phillip Evans
A report out from the UK Insurer AXA suggests the UK public is drowning in debt with 11.6 million people (25 per cent of the adult population) saying are under pressure financially with a momentous number, around one million three hundred thousand people, admitting their finances are entirely unmanageable.
The insurer goes on to say that over a million UK residents have borrowed too much credit and are now struggling to keep up their repayments, with less than 4 million struggling to manage their credit card bills.
County Court Judgements CCJ’s issued to the personal consumer has increased to their highest level since the beginning of 2007 and half a million home owners with mortgages where threatened with repossession or court action. The public interest Company that manages the register of judgements on behalf of the Lord Chancellor has reported that within England and Wales County Court Judgements rose by 17.4 per cent year on year to 223,519, its highest level since the beginning of 2007 and from the second quarter of 2008 this is a 25 per cent increase.
Personal insolvencies within England and Wales rose to just of twenty seven thousand in quarter 3 of 2008 which represents an 8.8 percent increase from just less that 25,000 in the previous quarter.
Bankruptcies and Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) have increased 12 and 3 percent respectively. The sharp rise in corporate and individual insolvencies merely reflects the treacherous economic conditions people and businesses continue to face through this deteriorating recessionary backdrop; making an even sharper rise in both business and personal insolvencies look inevitable in the coming quarters of 2009. Unfortunately the planned Simplified Individual Voluntary Arrangement SIVA, due out next year has been abandoned by the Insolvency Service
A simplified version of the IVA, for consumers with debts up to 75,000 and that would only require approval by a simple majority of creditors rather than the 75 per cent majority under normal IVAs, was due to be introduced in April 2009.
UK Home Owners unable to consolidate their debts using equity and are not wishing to go bankrupt have for the time being limited options between an IVA and a Debt Management Program.
About Phillip Evans:
The Finance Expert, Enable Finance Ltd offer a FREE private and confidential debt management advice service to ensure our customers don’t sink in debt. For our Corporate clients Enable Finance has a dedicated business recovery unit if your Company has cash flow or insolvency issues.
